Shoot the Glass

Harold and Maude (1971, Hal Ashby)

Harold (Bud Cort) is young, privileged, and obsessed with death. He frequents funerals of people he doesn’t know, and stages mock suicides to his mother’s great annoyance. He has no friends. At a funeral he meets 79-year-old Maude (Ruth Gordon), and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Maude, unlike Harold, is full of life, and frankly a bit strange.

I’m kind of split on this movie. On the hand one, I found it had aged very poorly, and even at 90 minutes, there were some stretches where I was just plain bored.

On the other hand, it’s a very cute and cheerful movie, strangely perhaps given the morbid scenes we get at the start. It’s pitch black comedy, and the chemistry between Harold and Maude is undeniable.

They go on all sorts of wacky adventures, and Maude shows Harold that life should be enjoyed to its fullest. My favourite scenes were those where the two are out causing mayhem, like when Maude gets pulled over by a police officer (a young Tom Skeritt) when driving a stolen car, transporting a stolen tree to the forest. As the officer checks the car, Maude (and Harold) jumps on his motorcycle and just plain drives off. Some of those scenes I found hilarious and very endearing.

And still, by the end of it (great ending, by the way), I felt like I both hadn’t seen enough, yet I’d had my fill of the quirkiness.

I can imagine this movie must have been shocking in 1971, and it’s no wonder it’s a cult favourite. For me, some things worked, some didn’t. The relationship between the two is excellent, but time was not kind to this movie.

Being quirky and darkly funny, this is a movie I really should have loved. I can’t really explain why I didn’t.

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